Rupert Reynolds MacLean serves up creative success

Talk about fate. In 2006, when Rupert Reynolds-MacLean arrived in London from Wellington, New Zealand, he managed Bumpkin, a restaurant in Notting Hill. A group of regular diners included Gorgeous Co-Founders Frank Budgen and Chris Palmer. Budgen even used to ask Reynolds-MacLean about the music in the restaurant, noting down his recommendations. 

“I had the hare-brained idea that if I worked in Notting Hill, I’d meet people who worked in the film industry.”

“I had the hare-brained idea that if I worked in Notting Hill, I’d meet people who worked in the film industry,” says Reynolds-MacLean. Not such a hare-brained idea after all. As well as the Gorgeous crew, he met Jani Guest and Richard Packer, then at Independent Films, who interviewed Reynolds-MacLean for his first production role. He worked closely with Guest at Independent for ten years and still has a huge amount of respect for her and Packer. 

Above: Reynolds-MacLean moved from his native New Zealand and began life in London working in a Notting Hill restaurant. 

It could have been so different. Reynolds-MacLean had planned to be an actor, with his restaurant work supplementing his income. He studied film and theatre in Wellington, his native city, then started to direct, edit and produce music videos and short films. “There’s such a small community of creative people in New Zealand that you all help out your friends,” he says. He ran the cinema and the café at the New Zealand Film Archive, and made online content for clients including Bacardi and Vodafone. 

Next, in pursuit of a film career, came the move to London on an ancestry visa (his grandfather is Scottish). “I wanted to work in film but it hadn’t occurred to me to work in commercials. I couldn’t find any commercials I liked!” Today, as Managing Director of Biscuit Filmworks UK for the last eight-and-a-half years – he adds on the half with characteristic attention to detail – Reynolds-MacLean has helped to nurture directing talent that’s created work that’s not only been liked, it’s been loved. Particularly by awards juries.

“I wanted to work in film but it hadn’t occurred to me to work in commercials. I couldn’t find any commercials I liked!”

Considering What? [below], directed by Steve Rogers for Channel 4 x Paralympics, has been an especially adored piece. Among other trophies, this jaw-dropping, heart-stopping film netted a D&AD Yellow Pencil and the Film Lions Grand Prix. Biscuit also took the Most Creative Production company at the 2025 Creative Circle Awards and Production Company of the Year at the 2024 shots Awards, where Rogers was also named Director of the Year: his other award-winning work including Coinbase’s Everything is Fine and Squarespace’s nod to The Banshees of Inisherin, A Tale as Old as Websites. Other directors whose work has been recognised this year include Ben Strebel, Glue Society, Andreas Nilsson and Rosie May Bird Smith. Young directors are also getting noticed: Florence Poppy Deary and Jackie Bao were each awarded silvers for their short films at the 2025 Young Director Awards, and Deary picked up the 2025 shots New Director of the Year trophy.

Above: Steve Rogers' campaign for Channel 4's Paris 2024 Olympic coverage picked up a slew of awards, including the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix.

There must surely be some kind of magic formula behind this winning streak? I put this to Reynolds-MacLean as we talk inside Biscuit UK’s HQ. “Nobody here lives and breathes advertising,” he reflects, looking cosy in a navy Biscuit-branded hoodie and sipping a peppermint tea. “It’s film, music, books and art. Everyone has a well-rounded cultural base.” 

Reynolds-MacLean is hyper-aware of people’s dwindling tolerance for ads. “Audiences don’t want to watch ads so it’s our job to find a way through that. Most of our work is about building appreciation or brand love.”

Which non-Biscuit brands do this well? “Libresse,” he responds, after a thoughtful pause. “Libresse’s work over the last seven years means that the public takes it seriously as a brand. It’s become liked and trusted because of the total shift in the work: no more blue liquid, and taking 52% of the world seriously.”

“Audiences don’t want to watch ads so it’s our job to find a way through that. Most of our work is about building appreciation or brand love.”

Libresse’s work has brought up some serious issues in women’s gynaecological health, often using humour to land a message. Remember Kim Gehrig’s Viva La Vulva animations lip-syncing to Camille Yarbrough’s Take Yo’ Praise? Biscuit’s reel similarly shows how humour can cut through on those issues that might be deemed ‘difficult’ or ‘taboo’. Considering What? tackles bias against disabled people. Get Comfortable from Andrex confronts British hang-ups about using the loo for a number two at work, at school, or someone else’s house. Midnight Mums’ Club for Three [below] uses gentle wit to empathise with the isolation felt by exhausted mothers consoling their infants in the middle of the night, capturing the camaraderie of those dark small hours. 

“Humour will always resonate in advertising,” says Reynolds-MacLean. Yet he’s keen that it doesn’t define Biscuit’s output. “There was a point when Biscuit was pigeon-holed into being a comedy company. That undermines the work we make and the people we work with. Some of the most prolific directors make comedic work but that doesn’t make Biscuit a comedy company.” He cites the Steve Rogers-directed film Memory for Cadbury which tenderly depicts a joyful moment shared between a man with dementia and his daughter. “There is a sense of humour, but it’s more layered than that. It’s a joke hidden within a moment of kindness and audiences might smile or cry because they’ve been affected by one of the performances.” He cites the all-singing, all-dancing Coinbase film, also by Rogers, Everything is Fine, as another example. “If that wasn’t comedy, it would be far too depressing,” he laughs.

Above: Some of Biscuit's most prolific directors make a lot of comedy spots, but Biscuit isn't simply a comedy company, says Reynolds-Maclean, citing Steve Rogers' recent work for Cadbury. 

There’s no formula, insists Reynolds-MacLean. “There was a time when everything became ‘make something viral, make something social, make something for the internet’. That was when a lot of research pushed brands into front-loading things like putting your brand first and following a formula. All the best work doesn’t follow a formula. The best Nike ads don’t: Write The Future [the Nike Football 2010 World Cup film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu on which Reynolds-MacLean was a production assistant, below] is a completely phenomenal standalone piece of work. So is Jonathan Glazer’s Ride [for Wrangler].” 

Reynolds-MacLean hadn’t realised until he began working at Independent Films that directors like Glazer, David Fincher and David Lynch also made ads. “Finding out that all these filmmakers I respected made these little bits of cinema for brands was a real explosion! That mastercrafting and storytelling is timeless: it still holds up and it’s still as good as it gets. You still get directors today trying to copy Tony Kaye.” 

This year, the Biscuit mothership in LA celebrates its 25th birthday (London opened in 2011). Co-Founders Noam Murro and Shawn Lacy continue to impress Reynolds-MacLean. “I was blown away when I met Shawn and Noam. There’s an incredible feeling of family and support and that’s why they keep getting stronger: they create a sense of creative safety but also friendship and love. We are all engaged with each other’s lives. We know each other’s kids. When we phone each other, it’s not just about work. That’s really important because you can’t do anything single-handedly. It’s all about trust and honesty: you have to have people around you who you trust, who you inherently believe in and who you want to have in the trenches with you.” 

Above: The best work - like Nike's Write the Future, which Reynolds-Maclean worked on while at Independent Films - doesn't follow a formula.

What troubles him about the future of the industry? “The widening chasm between clients and us. We’re here to make the best possible work for our agency partners and their clients. The further the separation between clients and production companies, the more it affects clients.”

He recalls how in-housing had this effect at the start of his production career. With Charlie Stanfield [now at Starling], he co-launched Indy8, a content division at Independent Films. “It did well for a few years, then the rise of in-house production at agencies gutted the middle of that business; not just for us, but for around six companies that had similar divisions. But it was an amazing place to build a lot of relationships and a wonderful way to build that level of trust between creatives and producers at agencies that wanted to make something outside of a 30-second format.” The ability to create the unexpected is significant for Reynolds MacLean. “You always want to be a bit of a step ahead of your audience. Surprising people is important.”

What’s been his most memorable lesson? He shares a nugget of advice he was given in his hospitality career. “As soon as you focus on trying to be cool, you’ve got a shelf life.” What about from his present career? “Everybody good can smell bullshit. When you’re starting out, you can accidentally fall into bullshitting people because it’s easier. But whether you’re a producer, director or an EVP, you’re the direct line of communication between the director and the agency. If you’ve forgotten to pass on a piece of information, you need to own that. The whole job is about communication. And the most important and valuable thing we can give in this industry is time.” He is clearly generous with his own time, for instance, in building out plans for individual directors, from more established talent like Rogers to Stanley Brock, a recent recruit. He says: “Stanley and I had been chatting for a year. His reel is now ready and that’s extremely exciting. The time is right.” 

He adds: “I’m proud of the work we’re making now. The most important thing is always pushing to make work that feels fresh, and making sure we have all got the space to be extremely good at what we do.”

Photography by Joshua Osborne